Hiring factory worker abroad

In a smoke-filled plant about 50 miles northwest of Shanghai, masked workers feed sacks of plastic scrap into shuddering old machines that transform them into pellets used to make a range of manufactured goods. But while the factory, operated by Taicang Jinhui Recycling Co, remains a hive of activity, the company has been moving much of its capacity to Malaysia following Chinese restrictions on recycled plastic imports that came into effect this year. The curbs on imported trash have deprived recyclers of about half of what they need to produce the plastic pellets they sell to manufacturers of products ranging from office furniture to sheathes for fiber-optic cables. And with domestic supply hard to come by, many have had little choice but to move abroad to stay alive. “Here in our industrial park we are the only company still producing - another 22 enterprises have stopped operations and just do warehousing or whatever, and all their staff have disappeared,” said … [Read more...] about China’s plastic recyclers go abroad as import ban bites

NA endorses keeping tax exemptions, nixes incentive to hire ex-drug addicts (24-05-2007)
Workers at a newly-established factory of an HCM City-based investment and construction company. The company has employed 200 returnees from Nhi Xuan rehabilitation centre. The National Assembly has rejected a Government proposal to reduce taxes for companies that employ rehabilitated drug addicts. — VNA/VNS Photo Trang Duong
Ha Noi — The National Assembly Standing Committee yesterday recommended that interest on bank savings accounts as well as remittances from abroad remain tax-exempt for the time being. During their afternoon session, the Standing Committee decided to gather further public comments and suggestions on the law from June 15 to August 18. Members of the Standing Committee discussed the draft bill on personal income tax presented by the Government. The proposed law contains two options for the lowest threshold at which income would be taxable, either VND4 million … [Read more...] about NA endorses keeping tax exemptions, nixes incentive to hire ex-drug addicts

On a quiet river bend on the China-Vietnam border, a group of people clambered up a muddy bank. They had just glided across the river from the Vietnamese side in a longboat, guided by men on both banks signaling with flashlights. The passengers scurried over to a group of men standing by their motorcycles, climbed aboard the bikes and disappeared into the night. Two Chinese police officers in uniform, stationed at a small post near the crossing point in the border town of Dongxing, watched impassively as they rode past. "We come every night," said one young biker with spiky hair before he rode off. "Sometimes we carry (smuggled) goods into town. Sometimes we carry Vietnamese workers." The bikers’ illicit cargo on that late summer night last year was illegal laborers. They were headed on a 700-kilometre (440 miles) journey to the economic powerhouse of Guangdong. The province, filled with factories making goods for export, has been dubbed “the workshop of the world.” … [Read more...] about How smuggled workers power ‘Made in China’

Seeking better pay overseas, many migrants are being ruthlessly exploited, while relevant agencies lack the means to monitor or protect them "The Taiwanese captain, the engineer and two other men repeatedly beat us for no reason with any object in their hands like a hammer or a wrench," said the 22-year-old man from the north-central province of Nghe An who was working on the 472-ton vessel Hsieh Ta. The four sailors jumped off the boat as it was towing a broken-down vessel to Tahiti. They were rescued by a tugboat about 800 meters from the island's Papeete port and arrived back in Vietnam a week later thanks to help from relevant agencies. The sailors are among tens of thousands of workers Vietnam sends abroad annually under a policy aimed at "international integration and the promotion of Vietnam's relationships with other countries." However, many of them have been forced into conditions akin to slavery by unscrupulous operators amid insufficient protection from relevant … [Read more...] about Vietnamese workers finding misfortune abroad

Overseas remittances to hit US$12 billion in 2014
Banks predict that remittances from overseas Vietnamese will reach US$12 - 13 billion this year.
Over the past three years, the country has seen a sharp increase in remittances, from US$9 billion in 2011 to US$11 billion in 2013.
Head of the Ho Chi Minh City branch, State Bank of Vietnam, Nguyen Hoang Minh said Vietnam would remain in the list of the world’s top 10 remittance recipients with US$12.1 billion, up about 10% compared to a year earlier.
Similarly, the Bank for Investment and Development (BIDV)’s also forecast a 10% increase in overseas remittance to US$12 billion by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, General Director of the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank) Le Duc Tho expected the figure to hit US$13 billion in 2014. The rising remittances, together with strong inflows of direct foreign investment (FDI) and official development assistance (ODA) will make Vietnam’s … [Read more...] about BUSINESS IN BRIEF 1/12